Richard Tepp, born in Newark, New Jersey, was the lead vocalist of the American garage‑rock group Richard and the Young Lions. The band, originally called The Emeralds, gained notice after a chance meeting with Larry Brown and Ray Bloodworth, who signed them to Bob Crewe Productions and renamed the group. Their debut single, "Open Up Your Door", released by Philips in 1966, reached Number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received significant airplay in Michigan, despite the group’s New Jersey roots. Subsequent releases included "Nasty" and "You Can Make It", the latter later featured on the Pebbles Volume 12 compilation in 1983. The group disbanded in 1967, and Richard Tepp passed away from leukemia on June 17, 2004. Posthumous attention included the 2004 documentary Out of Our Dens: The Richard and the Young Lions Story and later reissues such as Volume 1 (2018) and Volume 2 (2019).
